Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Deadline Drama: 24 Hours Away

The Swift Current Broncos will do something at the deadline. Maybe it's already been done or maybe it's still in the works but the Broncos have or will make a deal.

I'm basing this on the activity around the team and my talk with Dean Chynoweth this morning.

Here's some excerpts from our trade deadline chat.

JK: How's the activity been around the league, lots of interest out there?DC: There's actually not a lot of sellers right now. I think if you look at the standings and how tight everything is, I think, you know everyone thinks they have a chance right now. Guys are kind of throwing some lines in the water to see what might be out there but it's been pretty quiet and I don't expect a lot.

JK: As far as what you would like to do, maybe a little wishful thinking, but what would you like to do to the roster?DC: We don't want to weaken our team, we'd like to be able to strengthen it for the future. I think a lot of teams think that we're just discarding our guys and that's the frustrating part because they don't really offer you anything for them. Of course they want Kyle Moir, of course they want Myles Rumsey, of course they want Dane Crowley, Levi Nelson . . . if it's a case of me over-valuing our guys than so be it, you know I like our dressing room and I don't want to tinker with it too much.

JK: You've been open about Kyle Moir all season long about a potential deal. Will he be moved by tomorrow's 4pm deadline?DC: The one thing with Kyle, and he's made clear with our conversations and meetings, he wants to go to one place and one place only and that's for the obvious reasons for a chance to win a championship in Vancouver. With their aquisition of Wacey Rabbit it hasn't neccessarily closed that door but they'd have to move a guy like Kyle Lamb to be able to bring in another overage. But, from our standpoint if the deal isn't right for us, that helps us now and down the road . . . he's too valuable. I mean we've talked about the importance of goaltending. The one thing I'm excited about in the 2nd half is the possibility of competing for top spot in the division and getting into the playoffs in making some noise.

JK: With some of the players mentioned already, what's the chance of making a major deal before tomorrow's deadline?DC: I'd have to say a 50/50 chance, there's still a day and a bit here. Our focus is on continuing to make strides as a hockey team and get better for the future - by future I mean immediate future, not draft picks and not players that won't play in the league for a couple of years. I like the direction we're going and you have to be real careful about the moves you make once your team starts to get to a certain point. I think we're nearing that point where our best years are ahead of us and we also want to have a strong finish to this season.

JK: What about some minor tinkering, a good chance that will happen?DC: You've seen the players we've had up at certain times, I don't think minor tinkering I don't think will do much for us. If you take a long hard look at our list, I know people get sick of hearing this but we like the depth and skill in our youth and now you're starting to see this with guys like Justin Dowling coming up, James Martin on the weekend and Cody Eakin in the pre-season. I mean there are some good players there and if you go down that list of guys that played in the pre-season with guys like Kris Foucalt, Mike Brown, the Rodgers kid and Brad Hoban and these are guys that will push for spots next season. We only have so many spots. If you see the numbers we have we have a log-jam right now. It's fine to have a bunch of good players but they can't all play. It doesn't mean they can't play in the league it just means they all can't be Swift Current Broncos. Maybe one does become expendable in a larger deal.

JK: What about Ned Lukacevic? We saw Wacey Rabbit come back to the league from the AHL. Ned, is presently in the East Coast Hockey League, could we see him back with the Broncos or somewhere in the WHL.DC: No. I've talked with LA at different times this season on Ned's progress and the one thing you find with some of the NHL teams theire theory is if they can't play in the American League they should be back in junior leading and playing in all situations. That's not the case with LA. They also own their East Coast team and that makes a big difference too because they need to fill bodies there. They don't expect him to be down that long, they think he will be back in the American League soon. So that option isn't one.Well, there is all sorts of rumors coming at me today. I'm trying to get a hold of my good source in Brandon to confirm something that may take place tomorrow. The Wheat Kings are said to be one of the most active teams at the deadline this year.

Twitter @jonkeenNLsports

Jon Keen is the play-by-play voice for the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League and host of the "WHL This Week" Radio Show which is available at whl.ca.
After spending seven seasons as play-by-play broadcaster for the Swift Current Broncos, Jon headed west to call games for the Blazers for the start of the 2010-11 season on Radio NL
Jon has covered some major events in the sports world including NHL drafts in Ottawa (twice), Raleigh, NC, Vancouver and Columbus.